[SauronOfMordor]

about the M-16 "tumbling" rounds. This is more commonly called a "keyhole" strike, because of the keyhole shape produced on the a target as a result of the bullet tumbling during flight. NO rifle is supposed to produce keyhole strikes!

The marginal spin was supposed to give enough stability that the bullet was stable in flight, but would tumble AFTER entering flesh

[hiredhand]

Yeah...but since the tumbling effect was mostly observed on strikes outside of a couple of hundred yards, doesn't it make it a rather moot point on close range soft targets? I read some VERY bad statistics recently compiled in Iraq by a USMC Gunnery Sgt with the 1st Battalion out of Camp Pendleton about 5.56mm performance. A LOT of enemy soldiers were simply getting up and either running away, or continuing to fight after being struck in vitals outside of 300 yards with the 5.56.

The stats were better inside of 300 yards. He came to the conslusion that you probably shouldn't shoot at a hostile with the M4 if he's over 400 yards away.

They interviewed prisoners and discovered direct, center mass 5.56mm hits that had been stopped by loaded AK-47 magazines, wallets in shirt pockets, books (pocket copies of the Quran), radios...etc.. Granted, all these strikes had occured at several hundred yards.

Strangely enough, they didn't get to interview any enemy combatant who had been struck by a Marine using an M-14.

Go figure. :-)

[Spktyr]

The problem is that the early 5.56 & M-16A0/1 combo produced rounds that were just marginally stabilized and would tumble upon contact with *anything*, including blades of grass or twigs or brush. I'm told that it was most distressing to watch your tracer rounds go bouncing off in random directions rather than hit your target.